Macbeth was crazy, but does “Diary of a Madman” describe his insanity better than you would think?

Macbeth’s insanity can be illustrated in various ways, but Gravediggaz’s “Diary of a Madman” elaborates on the feelings of madness like few can. The group makes analogies comparing evil/madness with drugs and religion from an insane person’s perspective. From “Diary of a Madman,” the impression is that the narrators are not afraid or excessively distraught by their insanity with lines like “”. On the other hand, Macbeth is not aware of his unhinged mental state. If Act 4 Macbeth wrote a song, this would be it, with lines from the song correlating with the downwards progression of his mental health.

Gravediggaz, 1994

Now I’m going to convince you of how alike Killah Priest, Shabazz the Disciple, The RZArector, and Frukwan (members of Gravediggaz) are to Macbeth. To understand the rest of the post you will need a general idea of the events in Macbeth, here’s a summary just in case.

I’m going to start with the first of the four main verses from the song, Shabazz the Disciple’s part. With Macbeth in mind you can make some connections with lines like “And drugged me all up with the diseases of evil” which is similar to the Witches planting the first seeds of evil in Macbeth’s mind. Shabazz has an arrogant, angry tone especially near the end of his verse. I feel it’s similar to Macbeth’s attitude in Act 4 and Act 5, like this line from a short soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 3:

“I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm?

Was he not born of woman?” (Shakespeare)

Shabazz the Disciple

On the 2nd verse we got the legend himself, the leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA, known as The RZArector with the Gravediggaz. His verse wouldn’t have a place in the play as much as the others would, instead, it’s more like what Macbeth would say in the afterlife reflecting on his transformation from sanity to madness.

“The year 84, November, day 10

Overwhelmed by the wicked inspirations of an evil djinn

I realize my ideas has spawned for 400 years

Of blood sweat and tears” (Gravediggaz)

Macbeth, 2002

Killah Priest takes over for the 3rd verse. He takes on an arrogant tone just like Shabazz. Except in this part you’ll feel like he’s realized he’s fully committed to who he’s become, just like Macbeth after he’s lost everything to keeping his power.

“On your right side there's fire

On you left, deep waters

Watch your step, it's deep waters

What's that coming through the floor?

It's a claw, took his fucking ass to the fucking core” (Gravediggaz)

The closing verse is done by Frukwan. For me, this is certainly the final battle scenes of Macbeth. At first he’s so cocky and sure of himself until he discovers Macduff was born a C-section. According to the Witches prophecy a man born not naturally (some paraphrasing there of “born of woman”) would be the one to kill Macbeth. Then Macbeth loses his confidence in his great fighting abilities and all of his evil actions that were based on what the Witches had told him.

“You're sinking and sinking deep into the earth

Thoughts was possessed since the first day of birth

My mental says it's my turn to possess the matta

Stab you with a dagga of Jacob's Ladder

Thoughts become shattered, confused, and tragic

Fiery thoughts of Gravediggaz” (Gravediggaz)

So now I know what you’re thinking, “Hey Kobe, You could do this with a lot of songs! This isn’t that special,” and you’d be right. But not for the reasons you may be thinking (far-fetched conspiracy theories cooked up at 3 am after pouring over multiple albums). Shakespeare actually has a lot of influence on modern culture and the arts. The 2 popular main genres he wrote were tragedies and comedies. Both are still very much effective with the audience today. Everyone has their tragedies that they want others to be able to relate with, and everyone needs “comedic relief” to relieve them of the stress of tragedy. So the formulas and themes Shakespeare used can still be applied to great effect with modern context through modern media.

Gravediggaz, 1994

Sources:

Gravediggaz. “Gravediggaz (Ft. Killah Priest & Shabazz the Disciple) – Diary of a

Madman.”Genius, 21 June 1994, genius.com/Gravediggaz-diary-of-a-madman-lyrics.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Oxford University Press, 2015.